Bradley Walsh almost turned down 'Doctor Who'

Bradley Walsh has revealed that he almost turned down his new role in the forthcoming series of Doctor Who.

The former Coronation Street star host of The Chase has said that it was down to not knowing who the 13th doctor would be played by.

He told The Sun: “I was with Chris [Chibnall, the new showrunner] having lunch last year and he said, ‘Brad, I want you to do a job’.

“I said, ‘Sure, what?’ He said, ‘I can’t tell. It’s very, very secret. But you are the man for the job. It’s in Cardiff and will be a nine-month shoot’.

“I had another meeting and he said, ‘It is Doctor Who – not for the Doctor, though. We are going to change it around’. I said, ‘Who is going to be the Doctor?’ He said, ‘We can’t tell’.

(Credit: BBC)

“So I said, ‘I can’t accept’. He said, ‘But we want you. It will be an unbelievable journey. It will be groundbreaking. We are going to go for it. The BBC have trusted us’. So I’m in. A leap of faith.”

As it turned out, the 13th Doctor turned out to be Jodie Whittaker, who Chibnall worked with on Broadchurch.

Walsh plays the character of Graham O’Brien in the new series, one of the Doctor’s new side-kicks.

The first episode, which Chibnall has promised features ‘a lot of new monsters… and lots of new villains’, will be called The Woman Who Fell To Earth’.